Cactus field number collectors

A field number is a collector’s own label for a plant or seed taken at one locality on one day. This page gathers all 307 collector codes in the rarecactus.com field number database: who they are (where we could verify it), where they worked and which of the 20 genera fill their notebooks. We use these same codes to trace the wild origin of the plants we grow, so every name below is also a thread you can follow into the records.

Swipe the map sideways to see all of it.

Drawing the map…

Source: the rarecactus.com field number database, export of 10 November 2026. Positions are recomputed every night from the records.

Pick a dot or a genus

Hover the map to see who a dot is, or click one to pin that collector here.

How to read it. Each dot is one collector code, sized by its number of records. A dot sits at the weighted centre of the genera its records fall in, so a code split between Gymnocalycium and Echinopsis lands between the two. Codes that recorded one genus only sit just outside it. Lines run from each code to its genera; a genus holding under 2% of a code’s records gets no line.

Era uses the median year of a code’s dated records and is shown only where at least a quarter of them carry a date. Some codes stand for a team, a nursery or a society rather than one person.

Every collector code, A to Z

307 codes. 92 carry a short biography from published sources we checked; the rest show what their records cover until we can verify more.

A

A

Walter Albrecht

191 records · mostly Argentina

  • Gymnocalycium 142
  • Echinopsis 43
  • Parodia 5
  • Rebutia 1

Walter Albrecht collected cacti in Argentina, above all Gymnocalycium. His numbers, written in forms such as A 91/I/1c and A 93-1, cover Córdoba, La Rioja, San Luis, Catamarca, Salta, Jujuy, Mendoza and San Juan. Besides Gymnocalycium they include smaller sets of Echinopsis, Trichocereus, Parodia, Tephrocactus and Lobivia.

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A&M

Giovanna Anceschi, Alberto Magli

active 2000s-2010s · 466 records · mostly Argentina

  • Gymnocalycium 153
  • Echinopsis 149
  • Parodia 120
  • Discocactus 15
  • +5 more genera

Giovanna Anceschi and Alberto Magli are the team behind cactusinhabitat.org, devoted to the study of cacti in their habitats. Their numbers, dated 2005 to 2016, span Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Peru, Uruguay, Paraguay and Chile, led by Echinopsis, Parodia and Gymnocalycium. They published a synopsis of the genus Parodia in Bradleya in 2018 and described Echinopsis nothohyalacantha.

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AD

Aldo Delladdio

active 2000s-2020s · 335 records · mostly Mexico & USA

  • Ferocactus 122
  • Ariocarpus 72
  • Copiapoa 27
  • Echinopsis 24
  • +9 more genera

Aldo Delladdio is a cactus collector and traveller whose account of his sixteenth trip to Mexico ran in the journal Xerophilia in 2016. His numbers come overwhelmingly from Mexico, Baja California included, with smaller sets from Argentina, Chile, Peru, Namibia and Bolivia. Mammillaria, Ferocactus, Ariocarpus and Turbinicarpus lead the list, and he co-described Escobaria abdita subsp. tenuispina.

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AW

Andreas Wessner

active 1990s · 95 records · mostly Argentina

  • Echinopsis 35
  • Copiapoa 26
  • Parodia 15
  • Rebutia 11
  • +3 more genera

Nurseryman who runs the Kakteengärtnerei Wessner in Muggensturm, Germany, where breeding large-flowered Echinopsis hybrids is a speciality. His numbers come from trips to northern Argentina, the Chilean coastal deserts and highland Bolivia, led by Copiapoa, Lobivia, Parodia and Pyrrhocactus. He is the son of Willi Wessner, honoured in Rebutia wessneriana, and has photographed natural Trichocereus candicans hybrids around Famatina.

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AWC

Alan William Craig

active 1990s · 161 records · mostly Chile

  • Eriosyce 84
  • Copiapoa 73
  • Echinopsis 4

The Chileans study group listed UK-based grower Alan William Craig as its Copiapoa contact. His AWC series, which BCSS describes as acquisition numbers also used for collected seed, is dated 1994 to 1997 and covers northern and central Chile, plus Peru in 1994. Thelocephala, Copiapoa and Neochilenia lead the series, which also records non-cacti such as Rhodophiala and Alstroemeria.

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B

BB

Brian Francis Bates

active 1980s-present · 3,530 records · mostly Bolivia

  • Echinopsis 1,462
  • Gymnocalycium 448
  • Parodia 401
  • Rebutia 373
  • +10 more genera

Bolivia-based explorer whose numbering began with joint trips under B/K, BDH and BLMT from 1989 and continues in his own BB series from 1999. He has recorded mainly in Bolivia and Argentina, with further work in Peru, Chile, the USA, Mexico, Brazil and Paraguay, and Echinopsis leads, then Opuntia, Cumulopuntia, Gymnocalycium and Tillandsia. He co-described Sulcorebutia christiei and has supplied acronyms and corrections to the BCSS field number service.

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BC

Baldur Cornely

56 records · mostly Chile

  • Copiapoa 56

Baldur Cornely’s BC series is made up entirely of Copiapoa from coastal Chile, running from Tocopilla south past Paposo, Taltal and Pan de Azúcar to Huasco and the Río Limarí. It is densest in the quebradas around Paposo and Taltal, such as Quebrada Botija and Quebrada San Ramón, and covers species such as C. solaris, C. atacamensis, C. columna-alba and C. cinerea. The records carry no collection dates.

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BE

Franz Berger

active 1990s-2000s · 892 records · mostly Argentina

  • Gymnocalycium 500
  • Echinopsis 355
  • Parodia 26
  • Rebutia 11

Franz Berger’s numbers all come from Argentina and are dated 1995, 1997, 2000, 2001, 2003 and 2007, running from Jujuy and Salta south through Catamarca and La Rioja to Córdoba and San Luis. Gymnocalycium leads, ahead of Lobivia, Trichocereus, Echinopsis and Opuntia. He described Gymnocalycium parvulum subsp. huettneri and subsp. agnesiae, and co-described G. basiatrum from his own BE 01-273/1249 at Ulapes in La Rioja.

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BIG

Ignazio Blando

active 2000s-present · 280 records · mostly Chile

  • Copiapoa 200
  • Eriosyce 59
  • Ariocarpus 11
  • Lophophora 4
  • +2 more genera

Ignazio Blando, based in Trapani in Sicily, has numbered plants in the coastal desert of northern Chile since 2000, after a first stop near Arequipa in Peru, and also collected in Mexico in 2003. Copiapoa and Eriosyce dominate his BIG series. With Leonel Pumarino he described Copiapoa hoffmanniana in 2022 and Copiapoa saxifraga in 2023, both from BIG type collections.

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BW

Wolfgang Blum

active 1990s · 254 records · mostly Mexico & USA

  • Echinocereus 254

Wolfgang Blum (born 1963) co-wrote the 1998 monograph Echinocereus, and his co-authored names in the genus include E. apachensis (1998) and E. rebmanii (2023). His BW series, which BCSS places in the USA and Mexico in 1994, is mainly Echinocereus, led by Arizona, Texas, Chihuahua, New Mexico and Coahuila, and it mixes his field numbers with catalogue numbers.

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C

C

Desmond Thorne Cole

South African · active 1950s-2000s · 438 records · mostly southern Africa

  • Lithops 438

Desmond Thorne Cole (1922-2018) was a South African linguist, Professor of Bantu Languages at the University of the Witwatersrand, and with his wife Naureen a world authority on Lithops. His C numbers are Lithops only, from South Africa and Namibia with a few from Botswana, and the Coles spread seed under them worldwide. He wrote Lithops: Flowering Stones (1988); Lithops naureeniae honours Naureen and L. coleorum honours them both.

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CH

Jaromír Chvastek

Czech · active 1980s-2010s · 474 records · mostly Argentina

  • Gymnocalycium 153
  • Echinopsis 67
  • Sulcorebutia 65
  • Ferocactus 41
  • +11 more genera

Born in 1954 in Baška near Frýdek-Místek, Jaromír Chvastek first travelled to Mexico to study cacti in late 1987 and went on to organise expeditions there. His CH numbers cover Mexico, Argentina and Bolivia, plus Chile in 2012, led by Gymnocalycium, Mammillaria, Sulcorebutia and Lobivia. A Thelocactus specialist, he rediscovered Gymnocactus ysabelae near Tula in 1994 and co-described several Thelocactus and Turbinicarpus taxa with J.J. Halda in 2000.

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CS

Chris Sherrah

active 2000s-present · 1,632 records · mostly Mexico & USA

  • Echinopsis 304
  • Echinocereus 259
  • Ferocactus 209
  • Gymnocalycium 181
  • +14 more genera

Chris Sherrah runs cactushabitat.com, a photographic reference to cacti in habitat. His numbers span Mexico, his main ground, plus Argentina, the USA, Bolivia, Chile, Brazil, Peru and Uruguay, led by Opuntia, Mammillaria, Cylindropuntia, Echinocereus and Agave. In 2020 he proposed the name ×Austronotia batesii for a natural hybrid of Punotia lagopus and Austrocylindropuntia floccosa near Macusani, Peru, first spotted by his travelling partner Brian Bates.

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D

DJF

David J. Ferguson

American · 194 records · mostly Mexico & USA

  • Echinocereus 101
  • Echinopsis 60
  • Gymnocalycium 26
  • Ferocactus 2
  • +3 more genera

Dave Ferguson grew up in northern Colorado, moved to Albuquerque in 1982 and retired after more than 26 years as a curator at the Rio Grande Botanic Garden. His DJF numbers mark collection sites rather than species and cover mostly Argentina, then the USA, chiefly New Mexico, Texas and Arizona, and northern Mexico. Echinocereus, Tephrocactus, Gymnocalycium and Opuntia lead, and he co-described Puna bonnieae and Tephrocactus abditus from Argentina.

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E

EZ

Ernst and Ilse Zecher

active 1970s · 227 records · mostly Bolivia

  • Echinopsis 123
  • Sulcorebutia 45
  • Gymnocalycium 20
  • Parodia 17
  • +3 more genera

Ernst Zecher (1942-2022) was head gardener of the succulent collection at Schönbrunn in Vienna and curator of the IOS collection there, and he described Lobivia rauschii in 1974. Ernst and Ilse Zecher travelled twice in South America with Walter Rausch, and most EZ numbers are cross-referenced to Rausch numbers. The series runs from Peru through Bolivia into Argentina, led by Lobivia, Sulcorebutia and Parodia.

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F

FK

Fred Kattermann

active 1980s-2000s · 585 records · mostly Chile

  • Eriosyce 365
  • Copiapoa 172
  • Echinopsis 20
  • Gymnocalycium 9
  • +3 more genera

Fred Kattermann, born in Germany, moved to the United States in 1952 and took up cacti in the late 1960s. Over 14 expeditions to South America he collected mainly in Chile, plus Argentina and Peru, with Eriosyce and Copiapoa far ahead of Cumulopuntia and Maihueniopsis. He wrote the 1994 monograph Eriosyce (Cactaceae): The Genus Revised and Amplified and gave his wild-origin collection to the Desert Botanical Garden in 2014.

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FR

Friedrich Ritter

German · active 1930s-1970s · 318 records · mostly Bolivia

  • Echinopsis 92
  • Parodia 61
  • Copiapoa 42
  • Gymnocalycium 38
  • +6 more genera

Friedrich Ritter (1898-1989) was a German botanist who emigrated to Mexico in 1920 and from 1930 explored Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, Brazil and Chile, settling in Chile in 1952. His numbers centre on Bolivia, Chile, Brazil and Argentina, led by Pyrrhocactus, Trichocereus, Parodia, Lobivia and Copiapoa, and one FR number often covers several localities he judged to be one taxon. His four-volume Kakteen in Südamerika, issued 1979-1981, sets out his results.

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FS

Francisco Stockinger

active 1980s-1990s · 340 records · mostly Brazil

  • Parodia 327
  • Gymnocalycium 13

Francisco Stockinger (1919-2009), known in Brazil as Xico, was an Austrian-born sculptor and printmaker who settled in Porto Alegre, Brazil, and began growing cacti around 1974. His numbers come mostly from Rio Grande do Sul in southern Brazil and from Uruguay, with a few from Paraguay, and Notocactus and Frailea dominate. Parodia stockingeri and Notocactus scopa var. xicoi are named after him.

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G

GC

Graham Charles

British · 1,589 records · mostly Argentina

  • Echinopsis 558
  • Gymnocalycium 428
  • Parodia 141
  • Copiapoa 116
  • +11 more genera

British cactus botanist and author who has served as President of the British Cactus & Succulent Society. His numbers span Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Chile and Bolivia, with some work in Mexico, and are led by Gymnocalycium, Trichocereus, Melocactus, Opuntia, Lobivia and Pilosocereus. His books include a 1998 study of Copiapoa, and he co-described Copiapoa decorticans.

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GF

Norbert Gerloff

active 1980s-2000s · 1,020 records · mostly Brazil

  • Parodia 864
  • Gymnocalycium 126
  • Echinopsis 30

Norbert Gerloff (1947-2019) collected mainly in Brazil and Uruguay, with a few numbers from Argentina, and wrote his series as Gf to keep it apart from other collectors. Notocactus dominates, followed by Frailea and Gymnocalycium, plus bromeliads such as Tillandsia and Dyckia. He co-wrote Notokakteen (1995) with Neduchal and Stuchlík and published many Notocactus names in the journal Internoto, among them Notocactus ruoffii from Uruguay.

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GL&F

Charles Glass, Robert Foster

American · active 1960s-1990s · 273 records · mostly Mexico & USA

  • Ariocarpus 85
  • Mammillaria 58
  • Turbinicarpus 40
  • Echinocereus 39
  • +3 more genera

Charlie Glass (1934-1998) and Bob Foster (1938-2002) were an American partnership. Glass edited the Cactus and Succulent Journal from 1964, and from 1968 the pair ran Abbey Garden Press and Nursery and co-wrote Cacti and Succulents for the Amateur. Their numbers come almost entirely from Mexico, led by Mammillaria, Coryphantha, Thelocactus and Echinocereus, with Agave, Echeveria, Bursera and Jatropha also well represented.

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GM

Grzegorz Matuszewski

812 records · mostly Mexico & USA

  • Echinocereus 261
  • Turbinicarpus 122
  • Mammillaria 116
  • Ferocactus 77
  • +10 more genera

Field collector who has served as president of the Polish Cactus Society. His numbers come mainly from Mexico, at localities such as Jaumave, El Huizache, Vanegas and Mesa del León, with Mammillaria, Coryphantha, Thelocactus and Ariocarpus leading. He co-described Turbinicarpus saueri subsp. septentrionalis in 2004.

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GN

Gert Josef Albert Neuhuber

Austrian · active 1980s-1990s · 642 records · mostly Argentina

  • Gymnocalycium 610
  • Echinopsis 22
  • Parodia 10

Gert Neuhuber (died 2024) was an Austrian cactus collector whose numbers come almost entirely from Argentina, above all Córdoba, then San Luis and Catamarca. Gymnocalycium dominates, far ahead of Notocactus, Parodia and Echinopsis. He described G. berchtii in 1997 and G. nataliae in 2005 among other Gymnocalycium taxa, and Hans and Walter Till named G. neuhuberi after him in 1992.

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H

HK

Horst Kuenzler

402 records · mostly Mexico & USA

  • Echinocereus 375
  • Ariocarpus 13
  • Copiapoa 5
  • Eriosyce 4
  • +4 more genera

Horst Kuenzler (1937-2019) grew up in southwestern Germany and ran New Mexico Cactus Research, a cactus nursery and seed supplier in Belen, New Mexico. His numbers are dominated by Echinocereus from the United States and Mexico, with a smaller Chilean set of Neochilenia and Copiapoa. Echinocereus fendleri var. kuenzleri, which he first collected in 1961, is named after him.

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HO

Anton Hofer

85 records · mostly Mexico & USA

  • Ariocarpus 85

Anton Hofer’s HO numbers appear in the Living Rocks of Mexico field-number lists for Ariocarpus, from sites such as Rayones and Cerros Blancos in Nuevo León, Viesca and Parras in Coahuila, and Huizache in San Luis Potosí. He also worked on Turbinicarpus, publishing new combinations with Jonas Lüthy in 2000 and 2002.

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HT

P. Hallet

active 1960s-1980s · 400 records · mostly Mexico & USA

  • Echinopsis 72
  • Echinocereus 59
  • Gymnocalycium 49
  • Mammillaria 45
  • +9 more genera

HT numbers are not field numbers but a series credited to P. Hallet for plants collected by Alfred Lau. Each HT number repeats the species and date of the Lau number with the same digits, so HT 1013 and L 1013 are the same Tamaulipas Ariocarpus agavoides. The series follows Lau’s work in Mexico, Bolivia, Peru, Argentina and Chile, led by Mammillaria, Echinocereus, Lobivia and Parodia.

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HU

Leopoldo Horst, Werner Uebelmann, later Kurt-Ingo Horst

active 1960s-1990s · 485 records · mostly Brazil

  • Parodia 289
  • Gymnocalycium 85
  • Discocactus 51
  • Echinopsis 32
  • +2 more genera

HU stands for Leopoldo Horst (1918-1987), a Brazilian cactus collector, and Werner Uebelmann (1921-2014), the Swiss nurseryman who propagated and distributed his finds; after Horst died, Uebelmann continued the series with Horst’s son Kurt-Ingo Horst. The numbers come overwhelmingly from Brazil, with Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay. Notocactus, Frailea, Melocactus and Pilosocereus lead, and the genus Uebelmannia honours Uebelmann.

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HUN

Cyrill Hunkeler

active 2000s · 260 records · mostly Argentina

  • Echinopsis 120
  • Rebutia 49
  • Gymnocalycium 44
  • Parodia 37
  • +3 more genera

Cyrill Hunkeler, whose Tephroweb site covers South American opuntioids such as Tephrocactus, Maihueniopsis and Pterocactus, began work as a gardener at the Sukkulenten-Sammlung Zürich in 2003. His numbers come mostly from Argentina, above all Jujuy, Salta and Catamarca, much of it with Christian Müller, plus smaller sets from the USA, Switzerland, Venezuela, Austria and Cuba. Echinopsis and Tillandsia lead, then Tunilla, Parodia, Gymnocalycium and Tephrocactus.

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I

IDD

Igor D. Dráb

active 1990s-2010s · 656 records · mostly Mexico & USA

  • Echinocereus 194
  • Ferocactus 162
  • Mammillaria 99
  • Ariocarpus 48
  • +7 more genera

Igor Dráb’s numbers come overwhelmingly from Mexico, with smaller sets from the United States and Chile. Mammillaria, Coryphantha, Echinocereus, Thelocactus, Ferocactus and Echinocactus lead his list. He shared trips with Jaromír Chvastek and Roman Staník under the CSD acronym and, with Staník, described Echinocactus horizonthalonius var. subikii.

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ISI

International Succulent Introductions

American · active 1950s-present · 173 records · mostly Mexico & USA

  • Echinocereus 35
  • Ferocactus 18
  • Mammillaria 18
  • Rebutia 17
  • +12 more genera

International Succulent Introductions is the plant distribution program of The Huntington in San Marino, California. Begun in 1958 and formerly called the International Succulent Institute, it was adopted entirely by The Huntington in 1989 and offers only propagated plants. ISI numbers are introduction numbers dated by introduction, not collection, and Aloe, Mammillaria, Euphorbia and Haworthia lead the list, mostly from South Africa and Mexico.

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J

JA

Florencia Senoret, Juan Pablo Acosta (Spiniflores)

345 records · mostly Chile

  • Copiapoa 137
  • Eriosyce 129
  • Echinopsis 51
  • Gymnocalycium 16
  • +3 more genera

The JA numbers belong to Florencia Senoret and Juan Pablo Acosta, a Chile-based team recorded as Spiniflores, and Acosta co-wrote the 2013 field guide Cactáceas Nativas de Chile. Their numbers cover Chile and Argentina, led by Eriosyce and Copiapoa, then Echinopsis, Eulychnia, Cumulopuntia and Gymnocalycium. Acosta co-described Eriosyce spectabilis in 2011 from their number 704, collected in the mountains east of Carrizal Bajo.

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JAI

Harald Jainta

German · 799 records · mostly southern Africa

  • Lithops 799

German Lithops specialist who, with his wife Anja, has studied Lithops in habitat across Namibia and South Africa since 2003, completing their twentieth field trip in 2019. His 2017 book Wild Lithops, The Cactus Explorer’s Book of the Year, covers all 91 taxa of the Cole system from a field perspective. In 2019 he raised Lithops burchellii and L. euniceae to species rank.

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JK

Johan Pot, Kik van Boxtel

241 records · mostly Bolivia

  • Echinopsis 167
  • Sulcorebutia 50
  • Rebutia 20
  • Parodia 4

JK is the joint series of Johan Pot and Kik van Boxtel, whom BCSS lists as Rebutia specialists. Their numbers come from Bolivia, around Cochabamba, Aiquile, Sucre, Culpina and the Cuesta de Sama, and are led by Lobivia, Sulcorebutia, Mediolobivia, Echinopsis, Aylostera and Weingartia. JK 319 is the type of Weingartia sanpedroensis, which Pot and Alessandro Gentili described in Succulenta in 2015.

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JN

Jan Novák

active 2000s-2010s · 1,781 records · mostly Chile

  • Copiapoa 737
  • Eriosyce 542
  • Echinopsis 253
  • Gymnocalycium 204
  • +3 more genera

Jan Novák heads Novak-cactus, a family seed and plant business near Brno in the Czech Republic that grew out of a cactus hobby he began in 1999. His field numbers, dated 2004 to 2014, come from Argentina and Chile with a smaller set from Peru, led by Copiapoa, Eriosyce and Gymnocalycium, with Tephrocactus, Pyrrhocactus and Austrocactus behind.

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JO

Josef Odehnal

active 1990s · 215 records · mostly Bolivia

  • Sulcorebutia 67
  • Echinopsis 42
  • Echinocereus 31
  • Rebutia 30
  • +5 more genera

Josef Odehnal, who offered surplus seed from Brno on his website in 2006, has numbers dated 1997 to 1999. Most come from Bolivia, chiefly Tarija, Cochabamba and Chuquisaca, with sets from Argentina in 1997 and the southwestern USA in 1998. Sulcorebutia leads, then Lobivia, Rebutia, Parodia and Gymnocalycium.

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JPR

Jaroslav Procházka

active 1990s-2010s · 247 records · mostly Argentina

  • Gymnocalycium 125
  • Parodia 63
  • Echinopsis 59

Jaroslav Procházka, a Gymnocalycium author based in Brno, made long field trips across Argentina, from Buenos Aires province and Córdoba to Mendoza, Río Negro and Chubut, and into Uruguay. His JPR numbers are led by Gymnocalycium and Notocactus, with Tillandsia, Tephrocactus and Echinopsis. Gymnocalycium prochazkanum (later spelled prochazkianum) was described in 1999 from his collection JPR 95-184/562A, and he co-authored Gymnocalycium morroense in 2010.

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K

KF

Franz Kühhas

active 1980s-1990s · 138 records · mostly Argentina

  • Echinopsis 47
  • Gymnocalycium 27
  • Copiapoa 23
  • Eriosyce 22
  • +2 more genera

Franz Kühhas photographed South American cacti for his website cacti-at.info. His numbers, published under both FK and KF, run from Peru and northern Argentina to Patagonia and the Chilean coast around Taltal and Paposo, led by Tephrocactus, Pterocactus and Gymnocalycium, then Lobivia, Copiapoa and Austrocactus. He rediscovered Pygmaeocereus bieblii in Peru, Walter Rausch named Lobivia kuehhasii after him, and his KF 93-128/472 is the type of Gymnocalycium kuehhasii.

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KH

Bruno Knutti, Christian Hefti

active 1980s-2000s · 371 records · mostly Argentina

  • Gymnocalycium 149
  • Parodia 119
  • Copiapoa 39
  • Echinopsis 39
  • +3 more genera

Bruno Knutti and Christian Hefti numbered their joint finds from Argentina, Uruguay and Chile from the 1980s to 2007. Frailea, Notocactus and Gymnocalycium lead the series, followed by Pyrrhocactus, Parodia and Copiapoa.

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KJN

Petr Kupčák

active 2000s-present · 97 records · mostly Mexico & USA

  • Echinocereus 57
  • Echinopsis 30
  • Blossfeldia 4
  • Mammillaria 4
  • +2 more genera

Petr Kupčák is an amateur botanist and seed producer who runs Cactus Moravia International at Palkovice in the Czech Republic. His KJN numbers are seed lots raised from field material from January 2003 onward, not field collections, and cover Mexico, the USA, Argentina and Bolivia, with Echinocereus well ahead of Echinopsis and Lobivia. He co-authored Ariocarpus retusus subsp. sladkovskyi.

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KK

Karel Kníže

Czech · active 1960s-1980s · 456 records · mostly Bolivia

  • Eriosyce 103
  • Echinopsis 80
  • Parodia 79
  • Copiapoa 71
  • +5 more genera

Karel Kníže (1941-2018) was a Czech collector who worked in the cactus section of the Charles University botanic garden in Prague before his first South American trip in 1967, then stayed on after his second trip and later settled in Lima, Peru. There he founded the nursery Plantas Exoticas Knize. His numbers cover Peru, Bolivia and Chile, strongest in Copiapoa, Parodia, Lobivia and Sulcorebutia, and his best-known find is Cintia knizei.

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KPP

Karel Pavel Pavlíček

active 2010s-2020s · 212 records · mostly Mexico & USA

  • Ferocactus 72
  • Ariocarpus 26
  • Copiapoa 23
  • Gymnocalycium 20
  • +10 more genera

Karel Pavel Pavlíček, son of Pavel Pavlíček (PP), whose family runs a cactus nursery in Chrudim, Czech Republic, recorded his KPP numbers from 2010 to 2022, mostly in Mexico with Baja California, plus Chile, Argentina, Bolivia and California. BCSS notes that the KPP and PP numbers appear to form a single sequence. Ferocactus leads, then Mammillaria, Coryphantha, Copiapoa, Thelocactus and Gymnocalycium.

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KR

Wolfgang Krahn

German · active 1960s-2000s · 114 records · mostly Bolivia

  • Sulcorebutia 42
  • Echinopsis 24
  • Eriosyce 22
  • Copiapoa 9
  • +3 more genera

Wolfgang Krahn was a German cactus collector who wrote his own numbers as WK. He worked mainly in Bolivia from 1964 into the early 2000s, with further numbers from Peru and Chile, and Sulcorebutia and Lobivia lead his list ahead of Neochilenia, Matucana, Rebutia and Peperomia. Matucana krahnii honours him, and with Lothar Diers he described Hildewintera colademononis in 2003.

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L

L

Alfred Bernhard Lau

German · active 1960s-1990s · 457 records · mostly Mexico & USA

  • Echinopsis 75
  • Echinocereus 60
  • Gymnocalycium 49
  • Mammillaria 46
  • +12 more genera

Alfred Bernhard Lau (1928-2007) was a German missionary and cactus explorer who moved his family to Córdoba, Veracruz, in 1957. Most of his numbers come from Mexico, plus South American trips between 1968 and 1972 through Bolivia, Peru, Argentina and Chile, with Mammillaria well ahead of Echinocereus, Lobivia and Parodia. Turbinicarpus laui is named after him, and he described Echinocereus pamanesiorum.

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LB

C. A. Ludwig Bercht

Dutch · active 1980s-2010s · 1,603 records · mostly Argentina

  • Gymnocalycium 983
  • Parodia 307
  • Echinopsis 246
  • Rebutia 20
  • +7 more genera

Ludwig Bercht (1945-2021) was a Dutch chemist and Gymnocalycium specialist who chaired the DKG Gymnocalycium working group and served on the editorial boards of Succulenta and Schütziana. His numbers cover Argentina, Bolivia, Uruguay and Paraguay, with smaller sets from South Africa, Brazil and the USA. Gymnocalycium leads by far, ahead of Notocactus and Frailea, and Gymnocalycium berchtii is named after him.

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LF

Ladislav Fišer

267 records · mostly Argentina

  • Echinopsis 110
  • Gymnocalycium 60
  • Rebutia 59
  • Parodia 36
  • +1 more genus

Ladislav Fišer’s LF numbers come from Argentina, chiefly Jujuy, Salta, La Rioja and Catamarca, and from Bolivian sites such as Mal Paso, Palca Grande, Cuesta de Sama and Yunchara. Lobivia leads the series, followed by Gymnocalycium, Mediolobivia, Parodia and Aylostera, and the records carry no collection dates.

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LH

Ladislav Horáček

active 1990s-2000s · 323 records · mostly Mexico & USA

  • Sulcorebutia 76
  • Ariocarpus 64
  • Ferocactus 57
  • Echinocereus 23
  • +10 more genera

Cactus grower from Písková Lhota whose own collection came to specialise in Mexican plants, including a fine set of Ariocarpus. His first field trip, in 1992, took him from Texas deep into Mexico by bus, hitchhiking and on foot, and later trips covered Mexico, Bolivia, Peru and Argentina. His numbers centre on Sulcorebutia, Ariocarpus, Ferocactus, Mammillaria and Coryphantha, and he co-described Ariocarpus confusus.

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LM

Martin Lowry

British · active 1990s-present · 471 records · mostly Bolivia

  • Echinopsis 236
  • Rebutia 115
  • Parodia 63
  • Gymnocalycium 35
  • +2 more genera

Martin Lowry (born 1955) calls himself an amateur botanist with a particular interest in South American cacti, especially those of Andean Bolivia, where most of his numbers were made, with further sets from Argentina, Peru and Chile. Echinopsis leads, ahead of Weingartia, Rebutia, Parodia and Cleistocactus. He co-described the Bolivian genus Cremnocereus in 2017 and named the nothogenus ×Oreobivia in 2000.

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LRM

Living Rocks of Mexico

active 1990s-2000s · 232 records · mostly Mexico & USA

  • Ariocarpus 79
  • Turbinicarpus 35
  • Ferocactus 30
  • Mammillaria 29
  • +4 more genera

Living Rocks of Mexico is a field team, now Geoff Bailey and John Miller and earlier also Dave Rushforth. Bailey and Miller edit the living-rocks.com Ariocarpus website, and their LRM numbers record habitat observations and photographs only, with no plant material collected. Most sites are in Mexico, a few in Texas, and Mammillaria, Ariocarpus, Thelocactus, Coryphantha and Turbinicarpus lead the list.

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LZ

Eberhard Lutz

active 1980s-2000s · 297 records · mostly Mexico & USA

  • Echinocereus 254
  • Ferocactus 32
  • Mammillaria 9
  • Ariocarpus 2

Born in 1940 in Schweinfurt, Germany, Eberhard Lutz worked in the Lower Saxony school system and moved to Utah in 1994 for field study of North American cacti. His numbers, mostly Echinocereus, Escobaria, Mammillaria and Sclerocactus, cover the western United States, chiefly Arizona, New Mexico and Utah, with sets from Baja California and Canada. In 2010 he published his own classification of Escobaria in the USA and Canada.

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M

MAO

Martina & Andreas Ohr

267 records · mostly Mexico & USA

  • Echinocereus 267

Martina and Andreas Ohr publish Echinocereus Online (echinocereus.de) from Rosstal, Germany, with a seed list, habitat photographs and their own private herbarium. Their MAO numbers are catalogue numbers for seed-grown plants raised from defined parent plants, not field numbers. Almost all are Echinocereus, listed with localities across northern Mexico and the southwestern USA, chiefly Chihuahua, Texas, Arizona, Sonora and Durango.

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MAW

Mario Wick

active 2000s-2010s · 789 records · mostly Argentina

  • Gymnocalycium 519
  • Echinopsis 262
  • Parodia 7
  • Rebutia 1

Mario Wick, based in Gernrode in Germany, is named as publisher of the online Gymnocalycium journal Schütziana. All his numbers come from Argentina, from his first journey there in 2005 through 2013, and Gymnocalycium leads well ahead of Opuntia, Trichocereus, Notocactus and Lobivia. With Volker Schädlich he wrote a four-part study of Gymnocalycium seeds, published in Schütziana from 2017 to 2020.

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MK

Miloš Kaplan

active 2000s · 171 records · mostly Mexico & USA

  • Mammillaria 47
  • Turbinicarpus 41
  • Ariocarpus 26
  • Echinocereus 20
  • +4 more genera

Miloš Kaplan’s MK numbers come entirely from Mexico, mostly Coahuila, San Luis Potosí and Nuevo León, with more from Tamaulipas, Querétaro, Zacatecas and Durango. Mammillaria leads, then Thelocactus, Coryphantha, Epithelantha and Turbinicarpus. He was one of six collectors of the type of Escobaria grata in the Sierra el Burro, Coahuila, on 10 April 2000, and co-described the species in 2001.

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ML

Michel Lacoste

active 1970s-1990s · 111 records · mostly Mexico & USA

  • Mammillaria 107
  • Ariocarpus 3
  • Turbinicarpus 1

Michel Lacoste is a Mammillaria specialist, and almost all of his numbers are Mammillaria from Mexico, with a few other cacti and a handful of Echeveria. Most of his dated records fall between 1988 and 1996, at sites in Tamaulipas, Nuevo León, Guanajuato and Querétaro among others. He co-authored the provisional name Mammillaria amajacensis with C. Brachet and F. Otero in 1991.

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MM

Massimo Meregalli

Italian · active 1990s-2010s · 677 records · mostly Argentina

  • Gymnocalycium 626
  • Parodia 41
  • Echinopsis 10

Massimo Meregalli is an Italian entomologist at the University of Turin and a Gymnocalycium researcher who had the idea for the online journal Schütziana. His MM numbers come mainly from Argentina and Uruguay, with smaller sets from Brazil, South Africa, Morocco and Yemen, and Gymnocalycium dominates ahead of Tillandsia, Notocactus and Frailea. Gymnocalycium meregallii, described in 2012 from his MM 1200, is named after him.

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MN

Mats Winberg

active 1980s-2010s · 266 records · mostly Argentina

  • Rebutia 123
  • Echinopsis 78
  • Parodia 30
  • Gymnocalycium 18
  • +4 more genera

Mats Winberg (born Mats Nilsson), of succseed.com, numbered plants mainly in Jujuy and Salta, Argentina, from 1987 to 1990, with a few from Bolivia in 1989, and returned to Bolivia with Martin Lowry from 2012, with smaller sets from the western USA and Curaçao. Rebutia leads, then Lobivia, Parodia and Cleistocactus. Parodia winbergii (1996) was described from a plant he collected in Jujuy, and he and Lowry described the Bolivian cliff cactus Cremnocereus albipilosus in 2017.

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MS

Mirek (Miroslav) Sochůrek

active 2000s-2010s · 703 records · mostly Argentina

  • Echinopsis 255
  • Sulcorebutia 153
  • Rebutia 108
  • Gymnocalycium 91
  • +5 more genera

Mirek Sochůrek collected in Argentina and Bolivia between 2005 and 2015, with a smaller set from Mexico. Sulcorebutia, Lobivia and Mediolobivia lead his numbers, which also take in Parodia, Gymnocalycium and Tillandsia. He shares authorship of Weingartia neumanniana subsp. dagmariana, published in 2020, and Ludwig Bercht named him among the trusted colleagues who supplied seed for his seed list.

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MSG

Mesemb Study Group

records dated 1989 to 2010 · 1,074 records · mostly southern Africa

  • Conophytum 610
  • Lithops 464

The Mesemb Study Group, formed in 1986, encourages the study of mesembs and sends members a quarterly Bulletin. MSG numbers are not field numbers but the cumulative list of its annual seed distribution, begun in 1987, and only some of that seed was field collected. Conophytum and Lithops dominate, ahead of Cheiridopsis, Gibbaeum, Glottiphyllum and Titanopsis, with localities in South Africa and Namibia.

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MT

Martin Tvrdik

active 2000s · 525 records · mostly Argentina

  • Gymnocalycium 505
  • Copiapoa 11
  • Echinopsis 5
  • Eriosyce 2
  • +2 more genera

Martin Tvrdik, based in the Czech Republic, numbered plants in Argentina, Chile and Bolivia, and his dated numbers come from trips in 2006, 2007 and 2008, each prefixed with the year. Gymnocalycium makes up most of the series, ahead of Copiapoa, Acanthocalycium, Pyrrhocactus and Pterocactus. His 2006 route took in the Chilean coast near Paposo, where he recorded Copiapoa haseltoniana.

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MU

Andrzej Mucha

Polish · active 2000s-2010s · 924 records · mostly Bolivia

  • Echinopsis 489
  • Rebutia 148
  • Parodia 138
  • Gymnocalycium 109
  • +2 more genera

Polish Parodia specialist Andrzej Mucha numbered plants on four trips: Argentina and Bolivia in 2005, Bolivia in 2006, Argentina in 2009 and Bolivia in 2010-11. Lobivia leads his MU series, followed by Parodia, Rebutia, Opuntia, Echinopsis and Trichocereus. After a six-week Bolivian expedition he reported seeing 120 Parodia localities, with novelties such as P. hegerii, P. occulta and P. augustini.

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MZ

Milan Zachar

active 1990s-present · 574 records · mostly Mexico & USA

  • Turbinicarpus 157
  • Echinocereus 80
  • Mammillaria 79
  • Ferocactus 69
  • +11 more genera

Milan Zachar, a cactus grower since childhood, first went to Mexico in 1990, lived there from 1994 to 1998 and spent four years in Brazil. His numbers come mainly from Mexico, led by Mammillaria, Turbinicarpus, Echinocereus and Thelocactus, with Discocactus and Uebelmannia from Brazil, Copiapoa from Chile and orchids from Costa Rica. He wrote The Genus Turbinicarpus, published in 2004, and described Discocactus petr-halfarii.

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N

O

P

P

Jörg and Brigitte Piltz

active 1970s-1980s · 261 records · mostly Argentina

  • Gymnocalycium 160
  • Echinopsis 33
  • Parodia 18
  • Echinocereus 17
  • +7 more genera

Jörg Piltz (1944-2023) and his wife Brigitte built up Kakteen-Piltz, the cactus nursery and seed business that began in Düren in 1980, and used P for their field numbers, which some lists give as PIL. Their numbers, led by Gymnocalycium with Parodia and Lobivia, come mainly from Argentina, with smaller sets from Paraguay and Mexico. Jörg described Gymnocalycium ambatoense and, with Roberto Kiesling, the genus Yavia.

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PA

Petr Antálek

Czech · active 2010s-present · 260 records · mostly Mexico & USA

  • Echinocereus 135
  • Astrophytum 39
  • Mammillaria 29
  • Turbinicarpus 25
  • +3 more genera

Petr Antálek, a Czech grower born in Krnov, has explored Mexico since his first trip there in 2011 and made his twelfth trip in 2024. His PA numbers come mostly from Nuevo León, San Luis Potosí, Coahuila and Tamaulipas, led by Mammillaria, Opuntia, Cylindropuntia, Echinocereus, Echinocactus and Coryphantha. Since 2014 he has run the website Nová Aztekia, whose articles cover only cacti he has seen in habitat.

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PH

Paul Hoxey

active 1990s-present · 1,311 records · mostly Mexico & USA

  • Echinocereus 387
  • Ferocactus 258
  • Eriosyce 148
  • Copiapoa 142
  • +7 more genera

UK-based cactus explorer and taxonomist whose numbers come from Mexico, Peru and Chile, led by Mammillaria, Echinocereus, Ferocactus and Copiapoa, with Cumulopuntia and Eulychnia also well represented. He has described many taxa, among them Copiapoa humilis subsp. australis, Espostoa cremnophila and Echinopsis sandiensis. Matucana hoxeyi, which he first found in 2001, carries his name.

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PHA

Pavel Heřtus

active 2000s-2010s · 503 records · mostly Bolivia

  • Sulcorebutia 251
  • Echinopsis 53
  • Copiapoa 50
  • Gymnocalycium 38
  • +12 more genera

Pavel Heřtus, born in 1958, is a contact at KAKTEEN.CZ, a Czech nursery for cacti, succulents and Tillandsia. His numbers come mainly from Bolivia, with Argentina, Mexico, Chile, Ecuador, South Africa and Madagascar behind, and Tillandsia and Sulcorebutia far outnumber Copiapoa and Gymnocalycium. He co-described Sulcorebutia sedae and S. sormae and, with Halda, Tillandsia barborkae and T. krystofii.

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PP

Pavel Pavlíček

active 1990s-2010s · 519 records · mostly Mexico & USA

  • Echinocereus 132
  • Ariocarpus 121
  • Ferocactus 99
  • Astrophytum 65
  • +6 more genera

Pavel Pavlíček co-founded the Chrudim cactus club in 1971, was its long-time chairman, and grew the Chrudimský kaktusář shop in Chrudim, Czech Republic, into a family nursery where his wife Lída and their daughters work. His numbers come mainly from Mexico and the USA, with smaller sets from Madagascar, Namibia and Chile. Echinocereus, Ariocarpus, Thelocactus and Ferocactus lead, and he co-authored Thelocactus rinconensis subsp. palomaensis.

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PR

Karl Heinz Prestlé

active 1970s-1980s · 240 records · mostly Brazil

  • Parodia 194
  • Gymnocalycium 45
  • Echinopsis 1

Karl Heinz Prestlé (1925-2016) was born in Wuppertal, Germany, worked as a chemical analyst for a paint company and moved with his family to Veghel in the Netherlands in the 1950s. His first trip, in 1976, took him through Uruguay with Hugo Schlosser; his numbers, mostly Notocactus and Frailea, come from Uruguay and Rio Grande do Sul. He wrote Die Gattung Frailea and described Notocactus stockingeri and N. gibberulus.

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PV

Petr Pavelka (son)

active 2000s · 227 records · mostly southern Africa

  • Conophytum 105
  • Lithops 65
  • Copiapoa 32
  • Eriosyce 11
  • +3 more genera

Petr Pavelka, who issued a succulent seed list with his father of the same name for 14 years, ran the Prague nursery Palkowitschia and its habitat tours. His PV numbers, led by Conophytum, Cheiridopsis, Lithops, Euphorbia and Aloe, start in South Africa and Namibia and from 2003 to 2008 move to Madagascar, Chile and Argentina. He later co-described Pachypodium enigmaticum (2014) and Aloe iringaensis (2020).

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R

RAP

Raimondo Paladini

active 1990s-2020s · 291 records · mostly Chile

  • Copiapoa 150
  • Echinopsis 38
  • Gymnocalycium 36
  • Eriosyce 34
  • +4 more genera

Raimondo Paladini’s RAP numbers come from trips usually timed for December to February, beginning in Mexico in 1997-98 and since covering Chile, Argentina, southern Peru, the southwestern USA and, in 2023, South Africa and Namibia. Copiapoa leads his numbers by a wide margin, followed by Eriosyce, Tephrocactus, Gymnocalycium, Ferocactus and Trichocereus. A few early numbers record plants in Mexican botanical garden collections rather than wild sites.

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RD

Rodrigo Dacal Barlow

active 2000s-2010s · 58 records · mostly Chile

  • Eriosyce 33
  • Copiapoa 24
  • Echinopsis 1

Rodrigo Dacal Barlow’s RD numbers all come from Chile and are dated 2007 to 2012. Most follow the coast and valleys between Paposo and Pichidangui, with smaller sets from Arica y Parinacota near Putre, at 2,200 to 2,600 m, and from central Chile south to Curicó and Antuco. Eriosyce and Copiapoa lead his numbers, with Eulychnia, Echinopsis, Cumulopuntia and Oreocereus filling out the list.

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REP

Werner Reppenhagen

German · active 1950s-1980s · 634 records · mostly Mexico & USA

  • Ferocactus 218
  • Mammillaria 211
  • Echinocereus 113
  • Astrophytum 31
  • +4 more genera

Werner Reppenhagen (1911-1996) was a German nurseryman who founded his own nursery at St. Veit an der Glan in Carinthia, Austria, in 1934 and made 26 research trips, mostly to Mexico, from 1959 onward. His numbers are overwhelmingly Mexican and led by Mammillaria, with Ferocactus, Echinocereus, Opuntia and Coryphantha far behind, plus a few from Venezuela and the Caribbean. His two-volume Die Gattung Mammillaria appeared in 1991 and 1992.

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RFPA

Resplendissant et Fabuleux Périple Argentin

active 2000s-2010s · 180 records · mostly Argentina

  • Echinopsis 74
  • Gymnocalycium 63
  • Parodia 35
  • Rebutia 6
  • +1 more genus

RFPA, short for Resplendissant et Fabuleux Périple Argentin, is the series of a group who visited Argentina in 2009, 2012 and 2014, with Philippe Corman, Flavien Heriot and Alain Laroze on each trip. The numbers run through La Rioja, Catamarca, Jujuy, Salta and Córdoba, led by Gymnocalycium, Tephrocactus, Echinopsis and Lobivia. Corman and Laroze also took part in the related RCP (Chilean seed, 2006) and RCPB (Chile, 2011) series.

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RH

Ralf Hillmann

active 1980s · 1,465 records · mostly Bolivia

  • Echinopsis 466
  • Rebutia 432
  • Gymnocalycium 211
  • Sulcorebutia 165
  • +9 more genera

Ralf Hillmann’s RH series centres on Bolivia and Argentina, with further numbers from the USA, Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Peru, Namibia and South Africa, plus Sempervivum and Sedum from Switzerland, Italy and Turkey. Mediolobivia, Lobivia, Aylostera and Sulcorebutia lead the list. He co-described Parodia rosarioana from Tarija in 2015, and Sulcorebutia hillmannii, published in 2020, is named in his honour.

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RMF

Roger M. Ferryman

active 1980s-2000s · 195 records · mostly Chile

  • Eriosyce 86
  • Copiapoa 47
  • Gymnocalycium 21
  • Echinopsis 16
  • +3 more genera

Roger M. Ferryman collected in central and northern Chile from 1982 and, from 1993, in western and northwestern Argentina, with trips running to 2008. Neochilenia, Neoporteria and Pyrrhocactus, now usually placed in Eriosyce, lead his numbers, followed by Copiapoa. The Chileans study group listed him as its Neoporterianae contact, and he published several Neoporteria combinations in the 1991 Cacti: Illustrated Dictionary.

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RMSD

Richard, Marcel, Sylvie & Damien (cactustraveler.com)

25 records · mostly Mexico & USA

  • Eriosyce 8
  • Echinopsis 5
  • Ferocactus 5
  • Mammillaria 2
  • +4 more genera

RMSD field numbers come from Mexico, Peru, Argentina, Chile and Bolivia, with Eriosyce, Echinopsis and Ferocactus most frequent. Localities run from Tolantongo and the road between Vizarrón and Peñamiller in Mexico to Los Molles in Chile, Camaná in Arequipa and Camargo in Bolivia.

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RP

Ralph Peters

active 1980s-2010s · 24 records · mostly Mexico & USA

  • Echinocereus 18
  • Ferocactus 4
  • Ariocarpus 2

Ralph Peters is a New Mexico cactus grower who has studied the distribution, variability and cultivation of Sclerocactus, Pediocactus and Toumeya since the early 1980s. His RP numbers are mostly Sclerocactus and Pediocactus, followed by Echinocereus and Agave, and almost all come from the USA. He is an expert in germinating and growing cacti from seed, especially difficult species.

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RS

Roman Staník

active 1980s-present · 551 records · mostly Mexico & USA

  • Gymnocalycium 96
  • Echinocereus 94
  • Mammillaria 68
  • Ariocarpus 60
  • +10 more genera

Roman Staník (born 1952) began his RS series in Mexico in the 1980s, led by Mammillaria, Coryphantha, Thelocactus and Echinocereus, with smaller sets from the USA, and also numbered as the CSD team with Jaromír Chvastek and Igor Dráb. From 2004 his numbers cover Chile and Argentina, mostly Gymnocalycium and Eriosyce, then Brazil, the newest dated 2025. With Dráb he described Echinocactus horizonthalonius var. subikii.

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RW

Rainer Wahl

188 records · mostly Argentina

  • Rebutia 151
  • Echinopsis 34
  • Gymnocalycium 2
  • Sulcorebutia 1

Rainer Wahl, of the Studiengemeinschaft Südamerikanische Kakteen, numbered plants in northern Argentina, mainly Jujuy and Salta, and in southern Bolivia, mainly Tarija, Chuquisaca and Potosí. His RW series is dominated by Digitorebutia and Aylostera, followed by Rebutia, Lobivia and Cylindrorebutia. He co-described Aylostera mandingaensis in 2008 and co-authored a 2016 molecular study that proposed a new classification of Aylostera.

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S

SB

Steven Brack

American · 590 records · mostly Mexico & USA

  • Echinocereus 324
  • Conophytum 82
  • Mammillaria 56
  • Ferocactus 54
  • +6 more genera

Nurseryman Steven Brack grew up in Wisconsin, moved to New Mexico in 1973 and built Mesa Garden at Belen into a seed nursery for plants of known wild origin, handing it to new owners in 2016. His SB numbers come from Mexico, the USA, South Africa and Namibia. Echinocereus and Mammillaria lead the series, with Conophytum the top mesemb genus.

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SH

Dennis Sargant (plants collected by Alfred Bernhard Lau)

active 1960s-1990s · 455 records · mostly Mexico & USA

  • Echinopsis 75
  • Echinocereus 60
  • Gymnocalycium 49
  • Mammillaria 46
  • +12 more genera

SH numbers are not field numbers but a series credited to Dennis Sargant for plants collected by Alfred Lau (1928-2007). Each number repeats the species and date of the Lau number with the same digits, so SH 1013 and L 1013 are the same Tamaulipas Ariocarpus agavoides. The series covers Mexico, Bolivia, Peru, Argentina and Chile, led by Mammillaria, Echinocereus, Lobivia and Parodia.

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STO

Helmut Amerhauser, Franz Strigl, Hans Till

Austrian · active 1980s-1990s · 1,371 records · mostly Argentina

  • Gymnocalycium 1,217
  • Echinopsis 124
  • Parodia 17
  • Sulcorebutia 9
  • +2 more genera

STO, short for Standort (habitat), is the shared series of three Austrian cactus collectors, Helmut Amerhauser (1941-2024), Franz Strigl and Hans Till (1920-2012), working together or separately from 1987 to 1996. Most numbers come from Argentina, led by Córdoba, Catamarca and La Rioja, with smaller sets from Bolivia and Paraguay. Gymnocalycium far outnumbers Notocactus and Parodia, and G. amerhauseri and G. striglianum honour two of the team.

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T

TB

Tomasz Blaczkowski

active 2000s-present · 1,777 records · mostly Bolivia

  • Echinopsis 943
  • Rebutia 276
  • Gymnocalycium 263
  • Parodia 217
  • +3 more genera

Tomasz Blaczkowski’s numbers come from Bolivia, Argentina and Peru, with a 2026 trip to Chile, in a series begun in 2005. Lobivia leads by a wide margin, followed by Parodia, Opuntia, Trichocereus and Gymnocalycium, with many Cumulopuntia and Austrocylindropuntia. In 2023 he co-described Lobivia pilayensis, named for the Río Pilaya in Bolivia, with Kasperski and Skołuda, and he has supplied data to the BCSS field number service.

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TOM

Tomáš Kulhánek

active 2000s-2020s · 325 records · mostly Argentina

  • Gymnocalycium 167
  • Echinopsis 148
  • Parodia 10

Tomáš Kulhánek is a Gymnocalycium enthusiast and field collector based in Moravský Krumlov, Czech Republic, and belongs to the Working Group Schütziana, which publishes the online Gymnocalycium journal Schütziana. His recorded numbers are all Argentine, led by Córdoba, San Luis and La Rioja, with Gymnocalycium well ahead of Echinopsis, Notocactus and Trichocereus. He described Gymnocalycium alenae in 2017, and Wolfgang Papsch named G. kulhanekii in his honour in 2016.

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TS

Thomas Strub

active 2010s · 504 records · mostly Argentina

  • Gymnocalycium 503
  • Conophytum 1

Thomas Strub, based in Binningen near Basel, Switzerland, has numbered only Gymnocalycium, all from Argentina and overwhelmingly from Córdoba, with smaller sets from San Luis, Salta, Catamarca and Santiago del Estero. His documented trips include 2010, 2013 and 2014, partly with Volker Schädlich, Reiner Sperling and Mario Wick. With Sperling he described two subspecies of Gymnocalycium kuehhasii in 2019.

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U

V

VOS

Volker Schädlich

active 2000s-present · 1,718 records · mostly Argentina

  • Gymnocalycium 1,331
  • Echinopsis 230
  • Parodia 87
  • Rebutia 33
  • +3 more genera

Gymnocalycium specialist based in Spremberg, Germany, whose website, The genus Gymnocalycium, publishes an index of his VoS field numbers alongside habitat photographs and a seed list. He has collected mainly in Argentina, Bolivia and Paraguay, with some work in Brazil, and Gymnocalycium dominates, followed by Lobivia, Echinopsis, Parodia and Frailea. He published Gymnocalycium friedrichii subsp. stenopleurum in Schütziana in 2016.

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VS

Vladimír Šorma

active 1990s · 246 records · mostly Argentina

  • Gymnocalycium 85
  • Echinopsis 51
  • Sulcorebutia 48
  • Echinocereus 31
  • +5 more genera

Vladimír Šorma, born in 1959, published Gymnocalycium prochazkanum (later spelled prochazkianum) in 1999 and, with R. Slaba, Sulcorebutia × erinacea in 2005, whose type the two collected near Aiquile, Bolivia, in November 1999. His VS numbers run in sequence from San Luis north through western Argentina to Jujuy and back by Córdoba, then through Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California, then Bolivia. Gymnocalycium leads, then Sulcorebutia, Lobivia and Echinocereus.

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VZ

Johan de Vries, Elizabeth van Zomeren

active 1990s-2010s · 363 records · mostly Bolivia

  • Sulcorebutia 221
  • Echinopsis 42
  • Echinocereus 29
  • Astrophytum 23
  • +10 more genera

Johan de Vries and Elizabeth van Zomeren numbered their finds on trips from 1996 to 2017, mostly in Bolivia around Sucre, Tarabuco and Cochabamba, with a 2005 journey through Mendoza and Patagonia and a 2003 visit to Cuba. Sulcorebutia dominates, ahead of Lobivia, Opuntia and Pterocactus. De Vries described Sulcorebutia elizabethae and S. atrospinosa from their own VZ 204 and VZ 657.

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W

WG

Wolfgang Gemmrich

active 1990s-2000s · 179 records · mostly Brazil

  • Parodia 139
  • Gymnocalycium 24
  • Echinopsis 16

Wolfgang Gemmrich numbered mainly Notocactus from 1992 to 2000 in Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina in southern Brazil and in Uruguay, with Frailea, Gymnocalycium and Echinopsis next. Christa Koch went with him on his 1996 trip to Rio Grande do Sul and Uruguay, the year he published Notocactus gracilis in Internoto. Two Frailea names published by Prestlé in 1997 carry the epithet gemmrichii.

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WM

Wendell (Woody) Minnich

American · active 1970s-2000s · 167 records · mostly Mexico & USA

  • Mammillaria 166
  • Echinocereus 1

Wendell (Woody) Minnich, born in Ohio in 1947 and raised in the Mojave Desert, is an American field explorer, grower and lecturer who founded the nursery Cactus Data Plants in 1975. His WM numbers are almost all Mammillaria from across Mexico, from Baja California and Sonora to Oaxaca, with a few from the USA. The provisional name Mammillaria minnichii honours him.

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WP

Wolfgang Papsch

active 1980s-2000s · 497 records · mostly Argentina

  • Gymnocalycium 469
  • Echinopsis 26
  • Blossfeldia 1
  • Parodia 1

Wolfgang Papsch, of Kalsdorf in Austria, is the editor of the online journal Schütziana and has written widely on the history and naming of Gymnocalycium. His numbers are all from Argentina, from Jujuy and Tucumán south to Chubut and Santa Cruz in Patagonia, with Gymnocalycium far ahead of Tillandsia, Pterocactus and Tephrocactus. He described Gymnocalycium kulhanekii in 2016, and Gymnocalycium papschii, typified on his collection WP 89-83/111, is named for him.

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WR

Walter Rausch

Austrian · active 1960s-2000s · 524 records · mostly Argentina

  • Echinopsis 206
  • Rebutia 123
  • Gymnocalycium 87
  • Parodia 52
  • +4 more genera

Walter Rausch (1928-2022) was an Austrian cactus specialist from Vienna whose three-part monograph Lobivia appeared in 1975 and 1976. Beginning with a 1962 journey through Bolivia and Argentina, he reached cactus sites on foot, by bicycle and by moped, and his numbers also cover Peru and Uruguay. Lobivia, Rebutia, Gymnocalycium and Parodia lead, and Sulcorebutia rauschii and Gymnocalycium rauschii honour him.

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WRA

Wolf-Rainer Abraham

German · active 1980s · 247 records · mostly Brazil

  • Parodia 224
  • Gymnocalycium 22
  • Echinopsis 1

Wolf-Rainer Abraham, a German biologist and botanist born in 1952, made his first South American trip in 1982, exploring Rio Grande do Sul and Uruguay with Hugo Schlosser. His numbers come almost entirely from those two regions and are mostly Notocactus, now placed in Parodia, with Frailea, Wigginsia and Gymnocalycium. He described taxa including Notocactus rudibuenekeri, N. gutierrezii and Frailea buenekeri.

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WTH

Wolter ten Hoeve

active 2000s · 309 records · mostly Mexico & USA

  • Mammillaria 139
  • Ariocarpus 91
  • Turbinicarpus 40
  • Echinocereus 16
  • +4 more genera

BCSS lists Wolter ten Hoeve as secretary of the Belgian-Dutch Succulenta Society, and his numbers, dated 2000 to 2009, are dominated by Mammillaria. They cover much of Mexico, most often San Luis Potosí, Coahuila, Nuevo León, Durango and Zacatecas, with Ariocarpus, Turbinicarpus and Thelocactus next. He published the combination Mammillaria lasiacantha f. wohlschlageri in 2007 and wrote on Mammillaria deherdtiana in Succulenta in 2021.

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Z

Data: the rarecactus.com field number database, rebuilt every night from the BCSS field number lists, cl-cactus.com, Wild Lithops and John Miller’s Ariocarpus field-number list (this export: 10 November 2026). Region and era are worked out from the records themselves.